Tribute

 My first post smacked of self-pity. That will happen sometimes. Following Lewis's example (more on that later), I am going to make explicit attempts to get outside myself as well in this forum.

Let me begin by posting the tribute to Heidi I wrote on the day of her death, January 14. It was originally on the CaringBridge, but I don't know if it will stay there forever. And it is good to begin at the beginning:

Rest in peace

Heidi Laurelle Fenton Keiser was born on July 8, 1979 to Charles "Chuck" Fenton and Karen Tetzloff Fenton, the oldest of their three daughters. She lived her childhood in Ypsilanti, MI, and went to Huron High in Ann Arbor, MI. She studied Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Michigan.

Always a deep thinker who took her faith very seriously, Heidi began studying theology at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit. Wanting to pursue an eventual pontifical degree, she went to the Angelicum in Rome, Italy, for the intensive one year propaedeutic philosophy program offered by that institution. It was in Rome, or, technically, Castel Gandolfo, that I met her for the first time. She was tall, with a broad smile, long dark hair, and a very fancy wide-brimmed hat. The young Kevin Keiser pretty much knew she was out of his league. But after a walk on (American) Thanksgiving Day in the Villa Borghese in which we were abandoned to ourselves by our friends; and after a debate in a student-organized symposium that pretty much split down the lines of "Heidi and Kevin contra mundum"; and after many times walking her home up the 400 steps to the summit of Monteverde, things began to click between Heidi and me. We met in October, 2006. We began dating officially in January, 2007. I proposed in May. And we were married in September.

Heidi was the mother of our five beautiful children: Monica was born in Michigan, Bastian was born in Nashville, TN, and Nina, Grace, and Margaret were born here in Minnesota. Heidi homeschooled our children, organizing her own curriculum that drew inspiration from Charlotte Mason, Susan Wise Bauer, and several other educational theorists that emphasized content and curiosity. But the final product was all her own. Always detail-oriented and organized, she left several notes about her homeschooling curriculum and created several booklists for age-appropriate volumes on the same theme so that several kids in the family could all be studying similar material at the same time. The Keiser household regularly had over 200 library books borrowed at a time, all of which were returned before or on their due date because of Heidi's efficient systems.

She was the person I talked to at the end of the day, the person I bounced my ideas off of, the person who would and did often tell me when I was engaging in confirmation bias or broad-brushstroke thinking. We enjoyed each other's company so very much. Heidi was also an avid reader with several subjects under her study at any one time (A.I., themes of science and religion, education theory, history, mathematics, contemporary physics, etc). Most of what I know of anything after the 1980s is because of books she brought into the house and left around, sometimes purposely, for me to happen upon and read.

Finally, she also had a strong bent for spirituality, reflecting often on St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila, St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Augustine, etc. She was in the middle of doing the groundwork for a work of fiction that would teach Catholic spirituality to children. She was a great companion, a beautiful person in all ways, a remarkable woman, wife, and mother, the light of my life.

After 3 days of illness at home and 10 days in the hospital under intensive care, she passed away at 5:27 PM on January 14th, 2023, due to severe and catastrophic effects of Toxic Shock Syndrome from a Group A Strep infection. It was too soon for her to go. But she is at peace from the suffering now. In hope of the resurrection, I must wait to see her again, when the circle is finally broken, by and by. In the meantime, my family must learn to live with the loss of her earthly presence. Please pray for her speedy entry into Paradise. Pray for us. Pray for me.